Grand Canyon mines row

摘要

US politicians are at loggerheads over whether to allow uranium mining in north Arizona, near the Grand Canyon. Mining would create jobs, but might pollute the Colorado river, which provides the Southwest US with irrigation and domestic water.The White House wants to ban all new mining claims in the area for 20 years, but a group of Republicans is backing legislation that would render the ban meaningless.A steep rise in metal prices during the last decade led mining companies to register interest in exploiting thousands of new sites across the US, including several hundred near the Grand Canyon.